Archive for November, 2007
Call for submissions: Media Arts for the ICA Website
by Pedro Silva on November 27th, 2007
The ICA is launching a call for submissions of web-based Media artworks to be shown on the ICA website: submissions are currently open until 24 Jan.
To complement our existing Live and Media Arts programme, we are looking for work that is innovative, either in technique or ideas. The work we are looking for doesn’t necessarily have to be ‘interactive’, but it must be work that engages with the user.
Submissions are open to anyone who wants to show a piece of web-based work that they are proud of or that exemplifies their skills as an artist. It should be a relatively recent or new piece of work that hasn’t yet been launched or shown on an institutional or gallery website.
Link.
Tetris_Paris
by Pedro Silva on November 23rd, 2007
Source: www.woostercollective.com/2007/07/03/tetrisparis.jpg
BEOWULF
by Pedro Silva on November 23rd, 2007
Heróis míticos, monstros e/ou homens imperfeitos e falíveis numa estética visual a rondar a trilogia do “Senhor dos Anéis” com uma pitada do ambiente criado em alguns dos níveis do videojogo “Shadow of the Colossus”, “Beowulf” é um filme de Robert Zemeckis que usa de forma sublime a tecnologia de projecção Real D. Uma experiência visual e até interactiva a não perder e que poderá assumir-se como um decisivo contributo para voltar a levar as pessoas ao cinema.
Corram para as salas de cinema e aguardem pela adaptação do filme ao jogo.
http://wwws.pt.warnerbros.com/beowulf/
Game preview_EDGE: Beowulf
Retronauts Takes On The Atari 2600
by Pedro Silva on November 19th, 2007
In celebration of both the 30th anniversary of the Video Computer System and the utter collapse of Atari (again), the Retronauts gang takes on the venerable 2600. Shane and Skip skip out this time, so we add in James Mielke, who at 37 actually was out of diapers when the VCS first shipped, which is sort of a rare thing for us. Then Jenn Frank shows up without a microphone.
Is this about as retro as Retronauts is ever going to get? Unless we talk about Odyssey, which I doubt is happening.
Retronauts Episode 32 [.mp3]
Source: http://blog.wired.com/games/
Diagram: Comparing The PlayStation 3 Models
by Pedro Silva on November 19th, 2007
Fonte: http://blog.wired.com
Trust, Cooperation, and Reputation in Massively Multiplayer Online Games
by Pedro Silva on November 15th, 2007
Given the genre’s staggering growth and diversification over the last decade, the trust issues surrounding massively-multiplayer online games (MMOGs) are becoming as diverse and complex as those found in real-world systems. MMOGs like Second Life and The Sims Online created environments where real-life social phenomena are encouraged and replicated, while games such as World of Warcraft, Lineage, and Everquest, in virtue of their role-playing and fantasy settings, create new social dynamics with few practical real-life analogues, which in turn create new bases for trust.
User Demographics
As of June 2005, there are an estimated 9,250,000 active MMOG subscribers, with the games Lineage, Lineage II, and World of Warcraft comprising 67% of the market share (Woodcock). According to an online survey of 30,000 MMOG players, the mean age of users is about 26, and ages range from 11 to 68; weekly use averages 22 hours (Yee, “Demographics”). Though in most MMOG populations male players outnumber females by a wide margin, gender proportions are steadily converging, and in many respects (e.g. guild membership) females tend to be more dedicated to certain aspects of gameplay than males (Yee, “Norrathian”).
Massively Multiplayer Online Games – Background
In addition to an initial software purchase or download which costs around 50 dollars, MMOGs typically charge a monthly fee of 10-25 dollars, excluding one recent game (Guild Wars). Players are encouraged to meet, cooperate, and socialize in the game environment; users in my survey reported that they meet and play in a group with new players every time they play. Common tasks include informal adventuring for the sake of gathering items and completing predefined mission objectives, meeting to socialize and role-play, and creating and exhibiting player-created content such as items, furniture, character models, organized performances, and so on. Often times, tasks are designed such that they are too difficult to realistically complete with only a single player. Most MMOGs have a form of “guild” system which allows players to organize into a semi-hierarchical group with fellow players, and there is data to suggest that the majority of players belong to a guild (Yee, “Norrathian”).
The games are offered as entertainment, but many more serious uses and abuses of MMOG systems have since emerged: “farming” characters for retail (Loftus), real-world attacks prompted by in-game actions (Levander), and high-profile allegations of virtual underage prostitution (Ludlow). Since MMOGs are subscription-based services owned and maintained privately, players are subject to strict end-user license agreements and terms-of-use policies, as well as less formal game etiquette standards established both by the game companies and the player communities. However, the extent of repercussions for transgressive in-game behavior has thus far only amounted to account suspension or cancellation; there has yet to be a criminal investigation arising from actions between in-game characters. This may have to do with the regular patrolling of game environments by company-employed officials, or “GMs”, who have the ability to move undetected, observe remote exchanges, and eject any players from the game at will; moreover, most game actions and dialogue are recorded in server-side logs. The lack of privacy makes the use of MMOGs for illicit legal conduct risky; however, the otherwise lax repercussions make more minor behavioral infractions prevalent, such as verbal harassment and item stealing.
…
By: Tony Tulathimutte
Read all article: http://game-research.com
DISRUPTING NARRATIVES // ANDREA ZAPP
by Pedro Silva on November 15th, 2007
Mais uma excelente dica da vinda da Mouseland.
“Uma conferência que vale a pena ver on-line é a apresentação de Andrea Zapp nas “disrupting narratives” da Tate em Julho de 2007. Andrea Zapp nasceu na Alemanha, estudou cinema e televisão e desenvolve um conjunto de narrativas e plataformas digitais que problematizam noções passadistas que não têm em conta aspectos de realidades mistas e recombinatórias nas artes digitais da actualidade. Neste contexto, podemos considerar que a autora combina instalações site specific com espaços on-line, interfaces e tecnologias de vigilância em happenings que reflectem sobre a possibilidade de construção de espaços imaginários emergentes a partir da interacção de múltiplas pessoas em rede. Andrea Zapp editou dois livros: Networked Narrative Environments as imaginary spaces of being, MMU/FACT Liverpool (2004) e New Screen Media, Cinema/Art/Narrative, BFI, London/ ZKM (2002).
Na conferência “For We are Where We are not: Mixed-Reality Narratives and Installations”, Andrea Zapp mostra diversas instalações em galerias onde os participantes podem construir e manipular o espaço destas através de soluções enviadas e forjadas pela rede. Assim, o ambiente de um quarto de hotel ou de uma casa de bonecas pode alterar-se consoante os inputs de observadores dispersos na rede global de telecomunicações. A autora dedica-se ainda à construção de micro narrativas e telenovelas geradas por diversos participantes. As acções e o corpo próprio destes interactores fazem parte destes espaços imaginários. Para Andrea Zapp existe um modelo expressivo de arquitectura narrativa que deve ser tido em consideração nas realidades mediadas pela tecnologia onde as versões on-line podem ser misturadas com a realidade do dia-a-dia do escritório do bar ou do café. Vale mesmo a pena ouvir e ver os trabalhos desta artista digital que reflecte sobre o envolvimento e a participação do corpo num mundo ligado por múltiplos elos e linhas de software, redes de hardware que apelam à experiência incorporada em lugares booleanos de formas e sombras recombinatórias”.
When Books Were Technology
by Pedro Silva on November 6th, 2007
In a world of exponential technological growth, inventions from the past can sometimes be perceived as a common thing from nature. Books in particular, have been with us for so many centuries that we often forget they are one of the most important pieces of technology ever created.
The greatest contributor to books in the spanish language from the last century by using these to artistically express himself (just like games exploit computers for that very same expressive purpose and in many languages as well (C, Actionscript or Java)) was, without any doubt, Jorge Luis Borges. Few like him make me feel proud of the nationality I never chose.
A particular short essay from him got my attention a few weeks ago. In his book Other Inquisitions he explores the birth of reading, he reminds the reader that back in the egyptian times books were received with reactionary comments, for them, they were “like painted figures that seem alive but never answer a single question asked to them” and they eventually provoke that “people stop using their memory and become dependant on symbols”.
The voice, in all cultures, was regarded as a sacred sound that had more power than symbols themselves. Reading was always a communal excercise were one read for the others to hear.
Borges finally recalls a writing from Saint Augustine from the 2nd century were he witnesses that precise moment when man seemed to begin reading in silence:
When Ambrosio read, he passed his view over the pages penetrating their soul, in the sense, of not conveying a single word nor even moving the tongue.
We already know how computers are changing our culture and law as we know it. How is it changing our minds?
Sorce: http://gamesareart.com
‘Behind True Symmetry’, de Martin Kobe na White Cube
by Pedro Silva on November 6th, 2007
A White Cube na Hoxton Square (Londres) apresenta a exposição ‘Behind True Symmetry’, oito novas pinturas do artista alemão Martin Kobe. Reportando-se à sua colecção de desenhos de arquitectura (tanto o seu avô como a sua mãe foram arquitectos na República Democrática Alemã), fotografias de viagens e históricas imagens da arte de Piranesi, de De Stijl, do Construtivismo Russo e da Bauhaus, Kobe cria uma visão arquitectural dinâmica. A exposição está patente até 24 de Novembro.
Martin Kobe (1973, Dresden) é influenciado pela envolvência socialista ao nível do planeamento urbano e arquitectónico que dita a forma, função e uniformidade existente em Desden (Alemanha). As suas obras caracterizadas por matrizes de interiores desabitados mas familiares implodem de múltiplos pontos de fuga, sobressaem e atravessam numa convergência falaciosa. Os espaços virtuais apesar de serem meticulosamente executados, parecem provisionais e prontos a entrar em colapso.
O labirinto arquitectónico resultante de linhas, fachadas suspensas, tectos inclinados é liberto da sua funcionalidade e reconfigurado. O que sugere vácuos que podem ser lidos como translúcidas superfícies ou reflexões convergentes, mas que nunca encontram o horizonte. Estas novas pinturas apresentadas agora na White Cube são fracturadas e sobrepostas por dialécticas emocionais de cor/luz, textura/planos, interno/externo, factos/ficção.
As pinturas de Martin Kobe são uma reflexão da forma como experienciamos os espaços do nosso quotidiano. De acordo com Mark Gisbourne, em ‘Painting as Doubt and the Architecture of Impossibilty’, as pinturas “perseguem aspectos da investigação fenomenológica da arquitectónica do espaço, mundos (im)possíveis, e o fazer de marcas que se posicionam como provisionais conclusões investigadas.” Elementos fragmentados – ruas, corredores, portas, quartos, cantos, etc. – são reunidos como experiências e impressões para formar a nossa ideia de todo, um mapa mental do espaço acabamos de percorrer.
Traços de desenhos onde a tinta é consumida, riscada ou friccionada serve de testemunho de que as investigações de Martin Kobe são tanto sobre pintura como de Utopias distorcidas. Kobe desconstrói todas as aspirações arquitectónicas e reinventa os seus espaços diários.
Fontes:
www.e-vai.net
www.whitecube.com